Well, friends, we've come nearly to the end of Lent Madness 2023. It's hard to believe we kicked things off over five weeks ago on “Ash Thursday” with 32 saintly souls. With your help, the field has been whittled down to just two: Joanna the Myrrhbearer and Jonathan Daniels. Who will receive the coveted 2023 Golden Halo? Only the next 24 hours and your (single) will tell.
Regardless of the ultimate outcome, we’ve met some truly remarkable holy people along the way. Perhaps you learned about some folks you’d never heard of before or maybe you renewed acquaintances with saints who have long offered inspiration. Of course the entire notion of placing saints in a bracket is absurd — each “contestant” has already earned a crown of righteousness in addition to a “golden halo.” But at the heart of Lent Madness is the abiding conviction that encountering those who have come before us in the faith enriches and enlivens our own walk with the risen Christ.
In the process of this whimsical Lenten devotion we’ve all made some new online friends, encountered a community of believers who take their faith but not themselves too seriously, learned some things, were inspired by saintly witnesses, and hopefully had some fun along the way.
Of course we literally couldn’t have done this without our amazing Celebrity Bloggers, to whom we offer sincere gratitude: Laurie Brock, Megan Castellan, Anna Fitch Courie, David Creech, Neva Rae Fox, Heidi Haverkamp, Miriam McKenney, Emily McFarlan Miller, David Sibley, and Eva Suarez. Thanks to Bracket Czar Adam Thomas for his stellar behind-the-scenes work in keeping the bracket updated daily. You all rock!
Thank you to Richelle Thompson and everyone at Forward Movement for putting up with our shenanigans and producing a terrific Saintly Scorecard this year. Special gratitude goes to Ashley Graham-Wilcox for helping get words and images into the website each day.
Finally, thanks to all of you who participated by voting, commenting, drinking coffee out of Lent Madness mugs, filling in brackets, talking about saints with friends, liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter, and allowing us to play a small role in your Lenten journey. We’ve loved having each one of you along for the “madness” and on behalf of the Supreme Executive Committee we wish you a blessed Holy Week and a joyous Easter.
Before we invite you to cast this final vote, we should note that Emily MacFarlan Miller has ably shepherded Joanna the Myrrhbearer through the bracket, while Eva Suarez has done the same for Jonathan Daniels. We’ve asked them for a single image and one quote either by or about their saint. We’ve already heard a lot about Joanna and Jonathan, so now it's time to make your final choice. If you want to refresh your memory, you can click the Bracket tab and scroll down to view the previous write-ups.
The polls will be open for 24 hours and the winner will be announced at 8:00 am Eastern time on Maundy Thursday. Now go cast your vote — the 2023 Lent Madness Golden Halo hangs in the balance!
Jonathan Daniels
"As Judy and I said the daily offices day by day, we became more and more aware of the living reality of the invisible "communion of saints”– of the beloved community in Cambridge who were saying the offices too, and of the ones gathered around a near-distant throne in heaven – who blend with theirs our faltering songs of prayer and praise. With them, with black men and white men, with all of life, in Him Whose Name is above all the names that the races and nations shout, whose Name is Itself the Song Which fulfills and "ends" all songs, we are indelibly, unspeakably One."
— Jonathan Daniels, written shortly before his death
Joanna the Myrrhbearer
"Joanna is not just an illustration of the fact that Jesus attracted followers from the social elite as well as from the ordinary people and the poor. In deciding not only to support Jesus, but also to take part in his ministry by traveling with him and his itinerant disciples, Joanna may well have been motivated initially by the healing she had experienced, but it was a radical step right outside the Herodian establishment to which she had belonged and into the life of the ordinary people of Galilee and of the marginalized and rejected of society whom Jesus often attracted and sought out."
— Richard Bauckham, Gospel Women
NOTE: At 9:09 p.m. EDT, we removed 1,051 votes from Joanna the Myrrhbearer because of bulk voting from nine different IP addresses. Please vote just once, not several hundred times!
Images:
https://knowyourmothers.com/joanna-the-apostle/
106 comments on “For the Golden Halo: Joanna the Myrrhbearer vs. Jonathan Daniels”
Arghhhhhh…. I hit the wrong button!!!! My vote was for Joanna-but I hit Daniels.. he has one vote more than he should! I tried everything to go back.
Hmm... this is a tough one.
On the one hand, you've got a literal martyr, someone we actually know to have actually given his life to save a child. On the other hand, we've got a largely fictional character who may or may not have existed; and even in the most generous legend concerning her, it was never averred that she was martyred or even suffered anything beyond the inconvenience of leaving behind a life of wealth and privilege.
But... on the other hand: woman. So *of course* I 'll be voting for Joanna. Duh.
Tom Coleman, the white man who killed Jonathan Daniels with a shotgun blast and severely injured Father Richard Morrisroe, and who was found not guilty, went to his death without ever apologizing or saying he was sorry for the shooting. Listening to the interview (posted by Terry) with Ruby Sales,for whom Jonathan took the bullet, I know we cannot hate that hate-filled Tom Coleman. I pity the late Coleman.
I began with Jonathan Daniels for the Golden Halo and Joanna the Myrrbearer losing to Augustine’s mother Monica. What a joy this journey has been. Either is worthy, I hope Joanna is chosen.
Dear SEC: I hope you will audit the vote before 8 a.m., as the last time we had a surge like this was during the Great Cheating Scandal of St. Brigid, when thousands of votes were feverishly clicked from one computer. While I'm all for an honest race and ardent support for one's saint, I do not trust this tsunami of votes for Joanna. The vote count is rising by the tens by the minute, and this smells like fraud. Please investigate. I'm calling a "Gnash-Teeth in Outer-Darkness" foul.
St C, I truly hope and pray we will not go out with voter fraud; that would be very disheartening. But the late surge is very untypical. I supported both of these finalists from the start, but went with our 20th century martyr for the gold.
Wow! The polls just closed and it's Jonathan Daniels at 4534 votes and Joanna with 4506 -- ahead by 28 points! It did not look this close when I last checked early this afternoon. Hoping and assuming the votes are basically fair and true; looks like we have a Silver Halo winner this year!
If polls are "open for 24 hours" then we're only halfway there.
So... I've been thinking for years that I had until 8pm Eastern to vote! And no excuse this year about being too busy to grasp the details, since I'm retired now.
Oh well. At least I know better than to vote more than once.
Actually the polls close in one hour from now at 8 AM Eastern Daylight/5 AM Pacific Daylight.
The current count is:
3,960 for Johanna the Myrrh Bearer
and
4,973 for Jonathan Myrick Daniels the Martyr
Thank you. It is my first year , but will not be my last. I looked forward to it every day and also was very happy with Monday’s video. Thank you
While I am saddened by the end of the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournament, I am even more saddened by the end of Lent Madness. I have cast my vote and hope my Saint wins, but if not I am thankful for the journey.
Bless all who worked so hard to bring the Madness to us!
Though I have no great wish to deter
Those folks working to bear up the myrrh,
When the vote goes astray
Then the SEC may
Freely penalize voters that err.
No matter who wins one thing is certain, I am organizing a Feast of the Women at my Parish next Lent!!
Thank you for checking to ensure that we do not double vote using a different IP address.
Why cheat during the last hours of voting? I voted for Joanna throughout but no way would I want her to win by cheating; especially if it had been discovered after the count and announcement and her crown was forfeited.
I hope ballot stuffers are banned from this site. Why can there not be anything that is just fun?
How about a tie? For the first time, both of my chosen saints made it to the final round. Jonathan can be on the left side of the cup, Joanna on the right, or vice versa.
It has been fun and a great learning experience. I have many new Saint heroes.
With much gratitude,
Elizabeth
This Myrrhbearer had to choose Joanna the Myrrhbearer.
I voted as soon as this match-up came up in my email yesterday morning! Jonathan Daniels is the saint that we need right now. I've been checking all day and it seems that he is keeping his lead. It looks like he will have the golden halo this year. Yay, Jonathan Daniels!
Thank you to all who made Lent Madness possible. It certainly deepens my Lenten journey. I couldn't think of two more worthy candidates for the Golden Halo.
A friend Kim D. turned me on to this, and I'm so glad she did. It is just a fun and hilarious way to learn about the best of us, despite denomination. Being a Catholic I am very guilty of, well, everything, but specifically the weekend warrior thing. The stories of the saints and martyrs are so inspirational in a time where inspiration is fleeting. Special thanks to the Supreme Council; all hail! Glory to God in the Highest, and peace to we the people on Earth.
Am I the only one who is appalled, and even disturbed, on a fairly deep level, by the voting scandal? I am having a really hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that there really are people out there who are so deeply devoted to Joanna the Myrrhbearer that they are willing to actually cheat in order to bring about her victory in a for-fun internet contest. Yikes.
I hope that all y'all, no matter who you voted for, will, as you are able, emulate Jonathan Myrick Daniels in saying the Daily Office as often as you are able to do so.
There are several online resources to help you to do so. You can use YouTube to livestream, or watch later on demand if your timezone is to the west, liturgies from places like Canterbury Cathedral and The Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul (the real name of "Washington National Cathedral"). Or you can grab your copy of The Book of Common Prayer 1979 (if you don't have one, you can ask your favorite search engine to help you find the PDF version of The BCP 1979 free to download online) and just do it. Or use the most helpful (in my opinion) resource I found from another LM commenter during Lent Madness 2020 - dailyoffice.wordpress.com where you can find not only the written out liturgy for Morning and Evening Prayer, you can also play the recordings of MP and EP, and if your schedule allows join others from across North America (and occasionally elsewhere) for live Morning Prayer on Zoom five days a week at 7 AM Eastern/4 AM Pacific and 9 AM Eastern/6 AM Pacific.
And no matter how you voted when Chief Seattle/Sealh was a choice, you can still go to native-land.ca and find out whose land you are living on. I live, work, and worship on land historically inhabited by the Clackamas, Stl'pulmsh (Cowlitz), Siletz, Grand Ronde, Cayuse, Umatilla, & Walla Walla peoples.
Thank you for another wonderful Lent Madness season! There's always more to learn about this cloud of witnesses. I appreciate the humor and the real pathos of these generous flawed rôle models.